Tag: Luciana Berger

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department has undertaken a gender impact assessment of its mental health strategies.

Alistair Burt

This Department undertakes impact assessment analysis when developing and implementing policies. Part of this assessment is the analysis of equalities issues, including gender.

For example, mental health strategy No health without mental health A cross-government mental health outcomes strategy for people of all ages was published in February 2011 and was accompanied by an analysis of the impact on equality.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to implement recommendation 8 in the executive summary of Public Health England’s March 2015 report entitled, Public mental health leadership and workforce development framework, on working with relevant colleges, faculties and boards overseeing professional training to include mental health within public health curricula.

Jane Ellison

Public Health England (PHE) has worked with the Faculty of Public Health (FPH), Royal Society for Public Health and Royal College of Psychiatrists in developing and implementing the public mental health leadership and workforce development framework. More recently the Royal College of Nursing, Chartered Institute for Environmental Health (CIEH), Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH) and Institute for Health Visitors have endorsed the framework and signed up to its Call to Action. Mental health has been made a presidential priority for the FPH, CIEH and ADPH. PHE has provided information and guidance to inform the recent FPH curricula review, the Public Health Skills and Knowledge Framework review and the new Mental Health Skills and Knowledge Framework. PHE has also presented the framework to the United Kingdom People in Public Health Board, Skills for Care Mental Health Board, Health Education England Mental Health Advisory Board and the forthcoming Health Education England Public Health Advisory Board.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-04-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department has a team with specific responsibility for addressing women’s mental health.

Alistair Burt

The Department’s mental health policy teams provide strategic policy advice on mental health for people of all ages and genders. When issues are specific to a gender these are addressed within the policy development.

The Coalition Government published a national mental health strategy No Health Without Mental Health in 2012 which addressed mental health issues for the whole population, and introduced the concept of parity of esteem for mental health. This Government continues to hold NHS England to account through the NHS Mandate for the achievement of measurable progress towards the parity of esteem for mental health.

The Government announced almost £1 billion of additional investment for mental health in January 2016 including £290 million of new investment over the next five years to provide mental healthcare for new mothers. The Mental Health Taskforce Report published in February 2016 set out a recommendation for NHS England to ensure that by 2020/21 at least 30,000 more women each year access evidence-based specialist mental health care during the perinatal period. The recommendation stated this should include access to psychological therapies and the right range of specialist community or inpatient care so that comprehensive, high-quality services are in place across England.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what his Department’s target was for the number of qualified mental health trust inspectors in each year since 2010; and how many such inspectors were employed by the Care Quality Commission in each of those years.

Ben Gummer

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England and is responsible for identifying its own staffing requirements and recruiting suitably qualified people. The Department has not set the CQC targets for the recruitment of inspectors. The CQC has provided the following information.

The term ‘qualified mental health inspector’ is not one that is used by the CQC. Part of the person specification used in the recruitment of new inspectors for mental health services is that applicants have a background in mental health, learning disability, or substance misuse.

The CQC is only able to provide figures from April 2014 onwards. Prior to this, the CQC inspectors were not organised into specialist teams and were simply classified as “inspectors”. The CQC planned to recruit 149 inspectors by April 2016.

Number of full time equivalent mental health inspectors employed by the CQC

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people with severe and enduring mental health problems are (a) eligible for and (b) receiving social care.

Alistair Burt

Health and Social Care Information Centre’s Short and Long Term Support data shows that the number of people accessing long term adult social care support during the year to 31 March 2015 with the primary support reason of “Mental Health Support” was 110,000.

A further 6,000 new clients with the primary support reason of “Mental Health Support” received short term adult social care support to maximise independence.

The data shows the number of people local authorities have considered as eligible for social care support.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-05-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make it his policy to define a target for the number of out-of-area placements for non-specialist mental health care.

Alistair Burt

In April 2016, the Government announced a national ambition to eliminate inappropriate out of area treatments for adult acute inpatient care as a result of local acute bed pressures by 2020/21 at the latest. We expect areas to put in place local action plans and achieve year on year reductions from 2016/17.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-06-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what information his Department holds on the number of drop-in sexual health clinics in (a) Liverpool, Wavetree constituency, (b) Merseyside and (c) England operational in each year since 2010.

Jane Ellison

The Department does not collect this information. Since April 2013, local authorities have been responsible for commissioning most sexual health interventions and services as part of their wider public health responsibilities, including open access sexually transmitted infection services and contraception services for everyone present in their area.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-09-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many full-time equivalent mental health inspectors are employed by the Care Quality Commission.

Mr Philip Dunne

The Care Quality Commission currently employs 130 full-time equivalent mental health inspectors.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-09-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many meetings and on what dates he has had meetings with NHS Improvement on Southern Health since the start of 2016.

Mr Jeremy Hunt

Oversight of National Health Service trusts is primarily the responsibility of NHS Improvement (NHSI). I meet regularly with the Chief Executive of NHSI, as I do with a number of senior leaders. Our discussions cover a variety of issues that fall under NHSI’s remit including the progress of trusts that are subject to regulatory support.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-10-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of a moratorium on the commissioning of new specialised mental health services on patient access to mental health care; and if he will make a statement.

Nicola Blackwood

NHS England is reviewing the provision of specialised beds for adult secure mental health services, tier 4 child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) and perinatal mental health services. NHS England is expected to start a procurement process soon to ensure that the provision of mental health beds across the country supports improved access and care close to home where possible.

Since 2013 NHS England has continued to commission additional specialised mental health beds to provide further capacity in areas where it is required. This has included 56 tier 4 CAMHS beds, seven perinatal mental health beds and two medium secure mental health services beds.

The Five Year Forward View for Mental Health made recommendations for improving the commissioning of inpatient specialised mental health services, including national commissioners working more closely with local commissioners to better meet the needs of local populations.